We are delighted to let you know that Wayne Mumford, our new Commercial Director and currently the most senior member of staff at the Valley day to day, has kindly agreed to meet the Bromley Addicks by Zoom.
This will take place on :-
Thursday 17th December from 7.45 pm until 9.00 pm
If you would like to join this meeting please email me back and let me know and I will send you the link nearer the time.
If you also have a question that you would like to ask, please let me have it at the same time and I will collate them and pass to Ian Wallis and Ben Hayes who will be putting the questions to him on the night. There is also the possibility of writing questions in on the night as Zoom has this facility.
Tony will open the Zoom meeting at 7.15 to give you a chance to get in and settled.
COYA
Bromley Addicks Committee
Ben, David, Ian, Steve & Tony
This meeting is members only but you can apply for membership by emailing @wwtone on @tony.warran@btinternet.com
Comments
Tier 3 infotainment
Can't guarantee a write up as being vaccinated on Friday morning and will be in the control of Bill Gates from then on....or does that not apply to flu jabs?
Non-Bromley residents welcome tolerated
Brave of Wayne to come on a call like this to 8 weeks in when so much of his work has only just started but lots of positivity and ambition as well as concrete ideas.
Only had 650 people on the call but it's a start
A lot more in the pipeline that could be huge if it comes about but one thing was Zheng Zhi has agreed to do a short film about his time at Charlton which he is very positive about. He has 8m followers on Chinese social media alone. @Jessie will be in her element
Will type more notes tomorrow.
He'd been asked by Thomas Sandgaard (TS) how many Charlton fans there are across the world?
Would be interesting to hear what Lifers think.
There was a debate about the Wembley crowd, the many overseas groups and degrees of support from home and away to casual supporters who don't go as their lives have changed, etc etc.
Moving on, we started with WM given us some background on himself.
Born in Wales to a coal miner father, (I don't think he's related to Loretta Lynn) his father left the pits to work for Triumph in Coventry when WM was four so he grew up a Coventry fan and played for his school and Coventry Schools in centre midfield. At 11 he was scouted by various clubs but went to Man City because of the way they treated him. He signed schoolboy forms and then as one of six apprentices with City and played alongside Tommy Caton in their great youth side. But then manager Malcolm Allison was sacked and John Bond came in and the whole culture of the club changed. WM and all the other six apprentices were told that they could go.
Various midland clubs were interested and WM signed for Birmingham at 16 and made his debut for them v Nottm Forest marking John Robertson (I looked it up and WM made his debut as a 17-year-old in the old first division on 16 October 1982 in a 1–1 draw away at Forest).
He played just six league games and one cup game so remembers them all. As he said when you play so few games to you tend to remember them more. In a reserve game at Swansea he snapped his cruciate ligament and despite two operations that was the end of his profession career by the time he was 20 so he started his commercial career (He did also play non-league to a high standard for a few years.
Asked about Alan Curbishley he said he made his debut alongside Curbs but when the two met during the Joma kit era didn't remember him but as WM said he played 100s of games and I only played six so you remember and Curbs left soon after to join Villa. Curbs did make a point of asking other Birmingham players of that era about him and said sorry. They met again at the Valley recently and Curbs is doing Valley pass this saturday
Asked about how he came to be working with TS WM explained that TS contacted him, he didn't know TS. TS said he wanted someone he could trust to guide him through the minefield of English clubs. They spoke on the phone and met up, talked football and business and got on. WM said TS is very down to earth but shrewd.
WM didn't know how it was going to end up and at first it was just about helping TS to find a club to purchase but TS then asked him to get involved on the commercial side. TS had been working with Chris (Mort) and Lew (?) from Freshfields already to look at Wigan but that never felt right as a rugby town and didn't think any of the other clubs could offer what CAFC does. Coventry was too complicated and Sunderland is a great club with great fans but other issues.
WM said that is was clear early on that Charlton. WM knew Charlton from when he'd worked on the Joma deal and had meet Curbs, Suthers, Jason Morgan and Peter Varney and gone to Spain for the Llanera deal. He'd seen how well PV looked after partners. Said that that was only of the most straightforward and best experiences when making a partner deal in football which isn't always the case.
WM could tell TS about the Valley full with 27k and in the Premier League so it was an easy pitch to make to TS that we were the right club.
Went to the Valley with TS and tried to look over the fence. Blagged their way into Sparrows Lane and the "love affair" had started.
The history of the club was important as it the work of CACT (this was a recurring theme and we coincidentally had a CACT trustee in on the call as a fan who WM had meet that afternoon). Being a London club also a big factor for TS and for potential players and partners but WM felt that many people in the world may not know that Charlton is in London.
The stadium was also a big factor and there was "no other choice". "TS knew" it had to be Charlton and TS is "very determined".
WM's role
"TS is the owner and CEO, He's the boss and I report to him. Tony Keohane runs operations which is good as he's a details man, Emma is great in finance and Tom heads up Comms"
"Got lots of long serving staff, nobody seems to leave. When staff got their hampers from TS some of them were in tears. They've not had a present from the boss for a long time. All the staff got them, including academy kids, maybe as many as 300.
"The tears show the respect for TS but also how bad it was for them before, it was tough for them before so have to give them great credit"
Valley Pass upgrade
No me, it was the Comms team which is still only the same three people (Olly, George and Tom) so when they are doing all the TV stuff they still have to do all the normal stuff like interviews and twitter etc etc but all pulling together.
Shop
Still outsourced to Hummel for this season and next and club will honour that contract as right thing to do. Thinks there is too much clothing and too much of the same stuff in the shop but thinks Hummel are good partners (WM spoke a lot about partners, clearly he views sponsors, suppliers etc as partners not just cash cows. Personally I though this was interesting and key to his thinking). WM said that Hummel haven't been given feedback or guidance on the shop from the club previously so left to do their own thing but will now so it can get better.
Kits
Likes Hummel as they are flexible and bespoke. He went to their offices last week and looked at the new kits for next year which were picked by fans. TS liked the same kit as the fans did. Hummel will run the shop, as above, and do the kit next year.
Commercial Aims
In league 1 so not going to be atracting millions and millions but getting lots of people calling him to get involved. Aim is to build the brand. CACT is premier league but CAFC don't talk about it enough. It fits very well with TS's values as TS has his Sandgaard Foundation and CACT and their work is close to his heart. Jason Morgan, CACT CEO, has lots of contacts at high levels. WM did an EDI ( Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) course with CACT last week and was impressed.
Commercially we need to stop going to just the same well (the same local sponsors/firms as we have for ten plus years) Not a criticism of commercial staff but encouraging them to think wider. Want sponsors who we maybe don't have an existing connection with and have a global appeal. CACT and their work will be key to that.
Sponsors name at the Valley
"I'd be strung up from a lamppost by fans if that was the first thing I did was change the name of the Valley" "No, it's not on the radar"
Catering
There is a contract in place, which we will honour as right thing to do, my job is to review the contracts and see if they are best for the club. Not sure if all the deals make sense for CAFC. WM and TS have never seen how it is when there is a crowd in and the bars etc are open.
No plans to change the free entry to the Fans bar
The chefs here and at the training ground have been around for ten or more years, they like working here.
Being a former pro but not on the coaching side
Sit in a very nice seat at games, never had such a nice seat before, with Ged Roddy and Steve Gallen behind me and so I hear what they are talking about but I see it as a fan and through a fans eyes, i think "why don't they bring Chuks on" or whatever but I'm not privileged as to what goes on at the training ground, who's fit and not in the right frame of mind but a half time when they are talking I do have to bite my lip sometimes. We have a great team with LB, SG etc, I'm not sure they all know I'm an ex-player.
It's amazing how I've got the Charlton bug. Went to Burton and was devastated, nothing commercial just wanted three points.
Covid Rules for Bristol Rover and Sunderland
Chris Parkes knows the rules and deals with the EFL who set the rules, not my area but CAFC have managed Covid really well and professionally and we've stuck to the rules. Want to be the first club to be allowed 4k then 8k and we might be as we stuck to the rules.
Changes
As things progress changes will happen but TS will tell you why and explain way. With the MK Dons Covid games we were told Friday and the game was Tuesday. We thought all the tickets would go in hours but they didn't so we spoke to fans and re-thought it and changed things on tickets, refunds. Anything we change we will engage with fans on, there is no agenda, TS has common sense.
Fans' Forum
Next week their will be a form put out to apply for the Fans' Liaison Officer role (Don't worry, I'm not applying)
The Fans' Liaison Officer is the start, we want to engage with the whole community, we want 27k in the Valley and want everyone to feel welcome and able to come.
We want the fans forum to be as diverse as possible, not a closed shop.
Five year season tickets
We'll look at it, all done in conjunction with fans.
We could be in the premier league in five years, could be a good deal for some fans.
I dream of the day that Charlton shirts will be as recognised around the world in the same way as Real or Barca or Man Utd!
Sounds like he played an integral part in TS choosing us.
It's probably no bad things that we're still stuck with contracts like the kit/shop one covering next season a well, as it gives WM time to evaluate the options and if we change supplier, time for them to produce something decent for the 22/23 season rather than the awful catalogue all red shirt (in the wrong shade) we got stuck with at the start of the Nike/Just Sport deal